PURCELL Come all ye Songsters
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Henry Purcell, Giovanni Battista Draghi, Christopher Simpson, Francesco Corbetta
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Wigmore Hall Live
Magazine Review Date: 09/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 77
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: WHLIVE0083
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Fairy Queen, Movement: ~ |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
(The) Fairy Queen, Movement: Dance of the Fairies |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
(The) Fairy Queen, Movement: Ye gentle spirits of the air |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Harpsichord Suite No 5 |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Henry Purcell, Composer Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Timon of Athens, Movement: The cares of lovers |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Fly swift, ye hours |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Not all my torments can your pity move |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
(The) Italian Ground |
Giovanni Battista Draghi, Composer
Giovanni Battista Draghi, Composer Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Don Quixote: The Musical, Movement: From rosy bowers |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Don Quixote: The Musical, Movement: Let the dreadful engines |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
(The) Fairy Queen, Movement: If love's a sweet passion |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Passacaglia |
Francesco Corbetta, Composer
Francesco Corbetta, Composer Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Aureng-Zebe |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Aureng-Zebe, Movement: I see she flies me |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Pious Celinda goes to prayers |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Division on a Ground |
Christopher Simpson, Composer
Christopher Simpson, Composer Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
St Cecilia's Day Ode, 'Hail, bright Cecilia', Movement: 'Tis Nature's voice |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Abdelazer, Movement: Lucinda is bewitching fair (song) |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
(The) Fairy Queen, Movement: Hark! the echoing air |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
(The) Indian Queen, Movement: I attempt from love's sickness |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
King Arthur, Movement: Song Tune: Fairest Isle |
Henry Purcell, Composer
Carolyn Sampson, Soprano Elizabeth Kenny, Lute Henry Purcell, Composer Jonathan Manson, Bass viol Laurence Cummings, Harpsichord |
Author: Alexandra Coghlan
What could be just another lovely solo recital is subtly but determinedly refocused here as an ensemble affair. Each of the musicians gets a chance to step into the spotlight, and the result is both a more interesting and a much more satisfying listen than a straight sequence of arias with the obligatory mid-programme instrumental breath-catcher.
Whether it’s Manson’s easy virtuosity in Christopher Simpson’s Divisions on a Ground, Cummings’s delicate ornamentation in Purcell’s Harpsichord Suite No 5 in C or the instinctive musicality of Kenny’s sequence of lute pieces, it all adds up to a sense of dialogue. It’s a dialogue that spills over into the songs themselves, with the instrumentalists very present and forward in the recorded balance for the opening sequence of movements from The Fairy Queen. It’s the instruments that help ignite the explosive Lombardic rhythms and help to articulate the shifting musical moods of ‘Ye gentle spirits’.
But it’s Sampson whose flexible voice (expanding from near-white simplicity in ‘Fairest isle’ to heightened dramatic scope for ‘Not all my torments’ or ‘I see she flies me’) keeps us listening through an inevitably fragmented sequence of short works. Two larger-scale songs – ‘From rosy bow’rs’ and ‘Let the dreadful engines of eternal will’ – anchor the programme and give her greatest vocal scope, shaping Purcell’s arioso-style writing with care and a sense of structural balance and pacing.
Any recording of Purcell songs enters a crowded market but Sampson makes a strong case for her contribution, with just a little help from some starry musical friends.
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